GSA to search all of Des Moines for new federal courthouse site

Thursday, September 28, 2017 10:34 AM

The U.S. Government Services Administration is looking anew at sites for a $140 million federal courthouse in the city of Des Moines, while continuing to evaluate two locations that have been under consideration. “To ensure that GSA meets its obligation to procure a site that represents the best value to the government and the American taxpayers, GSA will conduct renewed market research within the city limits of Des Moines in an attempt to identify additional site alternatives outside the floodplain,” according to a release. The GSA will not work from a blank slate, at least initially. It will continue to evaluate two sites that border East Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway on the north and south. In July, the GSA said its preferred site was the former Riverfront YMCA at 101 Locust St., which is owned by Hubbell Realty Co. In August, Hubbell agreed to pull the site from consideration after reaching a deal in which the Des Moines City Council agreed to buy the property for $5.2 million if Hubbell and the city had not reached agreement on a development plan by May 31, 2018. Read more about that plan. Hubbell is said to be considering a hotel and condominium project. The GSA announced in April 2016 that funds had been approved to replace the current federal courthouse at 123 E. Walnut St. Its search for locations narrowed to the former Riverfront Y, the two locations along East Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and a lot near the federal courthouse annex at 110 E. Court Ave. That location was not among the two existing sites that will undergo further review and is no longer under consideration, a GSA spokeswoman said.